Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month he wanted to review whether the MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation were doing all they could to minimize the disruptions the shutdown would cause. | Getty Images

Cuomo says new design could avoid 15-month L train shutdown

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that a new European design to refurbish the L-train tunnels could obviate the need to close the tunnel for 15 months — a shocking move that comes three years after planning for the shutdown started and just three months before it’s scheduled to begin.

The new plan was developed by a team of outside experts in recent weeks at Cuomo’s request, and would involve elevating subway cables rather than burying them inside train tunnels, a technique the experts and engineers observed from looking at newer train tunnels in cities like London, Riyadh and Hong Kong.

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“With this design it would not be necessary to close the L train tunnel at all which would be a phenomenal benefit to the people of New York City,” Cuomo told reporters during a surprise press conference Thursday. “There would need to be some night and weekend closures of only one tube so service would still work because there are two tunnels. It would be a major, major breakthrough.”

The announcement, a seeming boon to the more than 250,000 commuters who ride the L train each day, comes amid speculation that Cuomo may run for president next year, a possibility he’s repeatedly denied. He has rolled out a series of major infrastructure projects in New York, casting himself as a politician who knows how to get things done and contrasting himself to President Donald Trump, who has so far held up funding for regional transit improvements.

The move drew immediate skepticism.

"The governor's plan may or may not work, but you'll pardon transit riders for being skeptical that a last-minute Hail Mary idea cooked up over Christmas is better than what the MTA came up with over three years of extensive public input," said John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, in a statement. "We need a full public release of the details of Governor Cuomo's idea, as well as the mitigation plans that will allow hundreds of thousands of L train riders to get around during the inevitable shutdowns and slowdowns in service."

The decision to halt the full shutdown was apparently a closely guarded secret, and only the governor and a small circle of top aides were briefed on it ahead of time. As of noon on Thursday, some MTA board members had yet to be informed of the substance of Cuomo’s announcement. Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Thursday he’d been briefed on the announcement earlier that morning in what he described as a “good conversation” with the governor.

“I was certainly surprised by the announcement given that the shutdown is scheduled for three months from now and the significant time and planning and expense that has gone into the decision that had been made,” MTA board member Veronica Vanterpool told POLITICO in an interview Thursday, noting that the decision to pursue the full 15-month shutdown was long ago approved by the public and the MTA’s board.

“There’s a lot of operating expense that went into the planning of this,” she said.

Vanterpool, an appointee of de Blasio's, said there is certainly a need for innovation and input from the private sector at the MTA, but questioned the decision to seek that input at the last minute, rather than from the outset.

Vanterpool said she hadn’t been briefed on plans to accept the Cuomo panel's recommendation prior to the announcement.

“While I can’t speak for every member of the board, I can speak for myself as a member of the board. The first I’m hearing about it is just a little while ago," she said. "So perhaps there were other board members who were privy to these discussions. I was not one of them. ... There has been no formal communication between MTA and the MTA board about the outcome of that visit. It appears as if this was devised in three weeks."

In a Jan. 3 memo sent to MTA board members and shared with POLITICO, MTA Chairman Fernando Ferrer announced the MTA would accept the recommendations of the expert panel, but also said the authority would “provide the Board with a more detailed briefing in the coming weeks.”

MTA’s Ronnie Hakim and Pat Foye briefed New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg on the plan Wednesday night, and briefed City Hall and DOT officials during a conference call Thursday morning.

“This is incredible. In just three weeks, outside academic experts convened by the governor have totally supplanted years of engineering planning by the MTA and its contractors on the MTA's highest profile project,” Reinvent Albany’s John Kaehny told POLITICO.

“Either the academics are wrong or the MTA and its vendors are totally incompetent. The MTA has had years to get the L train tunnel closing right. Haven't they been talking to top experts? What does this say about all the other disastrously delayed and over budget projects the MTA is mired in?”

“It doesn’t look great for the MTA,” TransitCenter’s Jon Orcutt said. “What technical credibility does the MTA have if the governor can call in some engineers and sort it out in that period of time?”

Ferrer estimated the new repair plan would begin in late April and said the repairs would take 15-20 months of work, but couldn’t give an exact price tag, even though he said it wouldn’t cost anymore than the full shutdown plan.

Cuomo said last month he wanted to review whether the MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation were doing all they could to minimize the disruptions the shutdown would cause for the roughly 250,000 New Yorkers who use the L Train daily.

"I can't tell you the number of people in Brooklyn who have come up and looked me right in the eye and said, 'Are you sure that there is nothing else that can be done and there's no way you can possibly shorten this?'" Cuomo said during a radio interview. "And I said, 'I will make sure that, personally, that there is nothing else that can be done.'"

Cuomo toured the Canarsie tunnel himself last month with a group of engineering experts, including leadership from Cornell University’s College of Engineering and Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, in an effort to find ways to shorten the 15-month closure.

MTA's New York City Transit President Andy Byford acknowledged afterward that Cuomo’s tour could substantively change the authority’s plans for the shutdown, although he insisted the scope of the project should remain intact.

"Bear in mind, this plan has been designed to basically reconstruct this tunnel to not only rectify the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy, but also to undertake a whole bunch of other improvements as well, and to fortify that tunnel for the next 30 to 50 years," Byford said last month. "So we need to make sure we're comparing apples with apples. "

Preparations for the shutdown have been extensive.

During the 15-month tunnel closure, L train service would have continued between Bedford Avenue and Canarsie in Brooklyn, while the city implemented mitigation measures, including new bus routes and ferry service.

"Anything that avoids disruption I favor, obviously," de Blasio said Thursday when asked about the governor’s announcement at an unrelated press conference. "If there is a plan that can be better that is great," de Blasio said, adding that he would hold off on making further comments until he had more details on the governor’s plans.

“On vacation i get the news the Ltrain shutdown will be halted,” City Council Member Antonio Reynoso tweeted Thursday. “Full statement when i get back to NYC Monday and have more details. One thing for certain, Cuomo runs the MTA. Also, Byford is made to look foolish as his plan for the L train is second guessed.”

The adoption of the new plan, developed at Cuomo’s insistence, came as he once again insisted he does not run the authority.